Album Review: Sour Soul by BADBADNOTGOOD x Ghostface Killah

Photo from Pitchfork

Words by: Ryan Gates

It was only a matter of time before jazz and hip hop collided. Being two genres that were born in the African American community, it makes sense that they should fuse. Hip hop began with DJ's sampling jazz and soul tracks, but there have been few jazz artists that write beats for rappers. Thanks to the unlikely partnership between Canadian trio BADBADNOTGOOD and Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah, hip hop and jazz finally achieved a proper equilibrium with Sour Soul.  

Ever since their conception, BADBADNOTGOOD have been finding new and inventive ways to fuse jazz and hip hop. They've worked with hip hop giants such as Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. They've done their own reworks of popular hip hop songs. Due to BBNG's fondness for both genres, an album like Sour Soul seemed nothing short of inevitable. BBNG's tracks excellently showcase their talent without taking attention away from Ghostface's verses, which isn't necessarily a positive. Ghostface's verses seemed lacking, his flow seemed lazy, and his metaphors just weren't there. That being said, it's difficult for me to say anything negative about Ghostface because of his work in Wu-Tang. The years have just seemed to catch up with Killah, and he's seemed to have lost some of the ferocity that he displayed in Wu-Tang.

Regardless of Ghostface Killah's weaker than expected performance, Sour Soul remains a hard-hitting album that digs deep into the roots of hip hop. BADBADNOTGOOD's nearly prodigious comprehension of jazz shines through brilliantly on each track, carrying Ghostface's verses to a level that they wouldn't have been able to reach on their own.